Out of 50 police services across Canada, Chatham-Kent ranked 44th out of 50 for violent crimes, with the top ranking being the most dangerous. These crimes include such offences as homicide, sexual assault and aggravated assault.

There was one murder and one attempted murder in 2016 in the municipality, up from zero in both categories the previous year.

Aggravated assaults dropped from 12 to 10, while sexual assaults dropped from 72 to 46.

However, the municipality ranked 20th for non-violent crimes, which include break-ins and thefts.

“This has always been our Achilles heel,” said Chief Gary Conn.

He said many of the break-ins are committed by chronic offenders, who return to their old habits after being released from jail.

According to the data, nearly half of break-ins occur in detached sheds or garages.

Of these, more than 90 per cent of the time, these facilities are left unlocked.

“We find a lot of these criminals look for crimes of opportunity,” Conn said.

He said there are also occasions of criminals from other municipalities attending Chatham-Kent to steal items and returning to their home communities to fence the property.

The chief added that police will be revisiting its chronic offenders list in order to perform compliance checks.

He called it important to raise awareness on the matter among the public.

“It is my hope that by informing the community of this issue, and engaging our citizens in reporting suspicious activities/persons in their neighbourhoods, this will assist us in interdicting these criminals,” he said.

“This issue remains a concern and is still one of our top priorities for the foreseeable future.”

Mayor Randy Hope said given the large geographical area police have to cover, he believes residents should use common sense.